Music . . . The 5th Love of My Life

In you may be wondering how I captured Holly's heart . . . I simply sat down at a piano beneath the waning moonlight. As I looked down the length of the lustrous grand piano, there she was. As she walked ever gracefully toward the bar next to the gazebo, I started to play Liebestraum by Liszt. The intertwining notes were caught by her ears. She stopped mid stride. As she turned to lock eyes with mine, her hair . . . If you were buying any of this, I'm sorry. I just could not help myself.

This is the piano that I grew up playing and learning much of what I know today. (not much in my humble opinion)

So, how did I end up putting music as my 5th love? Let me "a break it down". (Yes, that was a DJ Lance reference. Don't hate.)

     1. Holly

I mean . . . DAYUM!

     2. My kids (this includes Collin)

     3. My dog Oreo . . . I mean come on . . . How can you not love that face?!

     4. English: editing, writing, and definitely reading

     5. Music: listening, playing, and performing

According to my ma, I have always been seriously into music as a kid. She says to this day, "You never sang or hummed the main parts of a song, you were always listening to what was going on in the background, and you sang or hummed those parts instead." So, I guess that isn't normal?! Psh! I don't know, but what I do know is that I am no musical child prodigy. I am simply a person that loves music more than most people can understand. Thank God I found Holly. An amazing woman with the same love and respect for music.

I started playing the piano at some point in elementry school. I remember telling my Uncle Ernie (Who is an amazing musician. I cannot begin to explain how much I look up to him as a musician), "I want to play the saxophone like you." So his retort ends up as, "Not until you learn how to play the piano, read the music, and learn the theory that sustains it all." (No this is not verbatim. I'm 28 years old and this was like 18 - 20 years ago. Geez) So, we end up finding a piano teacher that is about three blocks away from my house. Which ends up being two houses down from my grandparent's house. I went to this teacher until the end of 8th grade of sometime in 9th grade. A couple of years before I left this teacher, I started venturing off, musically, on my own. I would spend HOURS in Henson's Music Store back home, just perusing the sheet music in search of something that popped out at me. Something finally did one day . . . Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. And learning to play classical music was all that I wanted to do, but that was not a direction that my current teacher was able to do. So I left that teacher, and was in "piano teacher limbo" for a couple of years, because I became a BAND NERD. That's right . . . I was THAT cool guy!

In junior high, I picked up my dad's alto saxophone and strolled my happy butt into Mr. Butler's classroom to learn how to squak on the sax. When I got into high school I joined the marching band (football field show) for the first semester, and concert band for the second semester. I guess that over the years I became a decent saxophone player, but to this day, I prefer to remain humble . . . and I am very stubborn about it. What I will do for you all though, is let you in on what I did, musically, in high school: Freshman year - I did not get to march in the show, but I got to help out in field set up; got to perform in concert band. Sophmore year - got to perform in the field show with the theme based on the concert piece Africa; performed second chair in concert band. Junior year - got to perform in the field show with the theme based on the movie, The Mask of Zorro; got to perform in concert band, first chair; performed in jazz band, was awarded the Louis Armstrong award for soloing. Senior year - got to perform in the field show with the theme based on the Broadway production Miss Saigon, was section leader, we won multiple Sweepstakes awards that year; performed in concert band, first chair, section leader; performed in jazz band, lead alto sax, was awarded the Louis Armstrong award for soloing. I guess that would be considered the modest version.

For a few years, starting in about my junior year in high school, I played saxophones in a ska core band called King Size Zero. That was an amazing experience. My dream was to eventually play jazz for a living. Not necessarily as a frontman, but to just be on stage, performing, sharing my passion with others. Now that that dream is not going to be coming to fulfillment, I will share my passion and love for music with my children and Holly. I can only hope and dream that they will be as passionate about music as Holly and I are, and that they will strive to excel in music. So do your kids play any instruments, or do you want them to if they currently don't? Do you have a particular passion for music or play an instrument yourself?